It is known for stringed electrical musical instruments to employ at least one transducer or pick-up sensitive to the vibrations of strings stretched over a bridge to generate electrical signals which can be amplified, and in some cases further modified, for reproduction. The majority of such pick-ups utilize electromagnetic transducers which necessitate that the strings be ferromagnetic, although piezo-electric transducers capable of producing electrical signals resulting solely from mechanical vibrations have been known. Typical examples of known such piezo-electric transducers for stringed musical instruments are discussed in British Pat. No. 1 524 833 and British Patent application No. 2 070 313. Various problems have been associated with known piezo-electric transducers; one such problem has been that of faithfully reproducing in the electrical signals the tonal qualities of the vibrating string of the musical instrument. U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,396 discloses one prior art attempt to so construct a pick-up for a stringed musical instrument incorporating a piezo-electric transducer that the electrical signal will reproduce faithfully, or more nearly faithfully, the tonal qualities of the original vibrating string.
In prior art stringed musical instruments the major factor influencing the necessary length of the vibrating strings are the modulus of elasticity of the material of which the string is made. This also influences the tension under which the string must be placed in order to vibrate at a given frequency in order to be able to obtain a desired range of pitch. In known musical instruments this tension, particularly when applied to four or six strings, has been sufficiently high as to make it necessary, at least in the case of instruments such as guitars, for the instrument neck, carrying the finger board or fretboard, to be reinforced with a metal rod to prevent bowing.
Although, by using rather thick and stiff strings, it has in the past been possible to generate notes in the lower register with instruments such as, for example, an electric bass guitar without a resonance chamber, instruments such as the double bass have still required a resonance chamber and rather long strings in order to produce the low notes required.